No. 3 Tigers rally, defeat No. 4 Cal

The clutch play of three seniors on the Pacific men's water polo team earned the Tigers a rousing road victory on Saturday morning.

The Record

The clutch play of three seniors on the Pacific men's water polo team earned the Tigers a rousing road victory on Saturday morning.

No. 3 Pacific scored the final three goals of the match and held No. 4 Cal scoreless for the final 14:37 to earn a 7-6 win at Spieker Aquatics Complex in Berkeley.

Senior Balasz Erdelyi scored two goals in the third quarter to tie the match and fellow senior Goran Tomasevic scored the game-winning goal with just over six minutes remaining for the Tigers (10-1, 2-0 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation).

"It wasn't a pretty game for us, but Malkis stepped up and was enormous and the key to our effort," Pacific coach James Graham said.

"Our offense was struggling and our defense did the job. It's nice to show we had the poise and control to do this in a big road match that aired on national television."

Erdelyi and Tomasevic had three goals apiece, while sophomore defender Casey Fleming had Pacific's other goal. Cal (8-3, 0-1) received two goals from Aleksa Saponjic and goalie Michael Boggan made 14 saves.

Erdelyi said it was exciting to play on television and credited Malkis for getting Pacific the victory.

"We made a lot of mistakes, but luckily Malkis was amazing and he saved us and our day," said Erdelyi, the reigning national player of the year who now has 39 goals this season.

"We're on the right track and we have to keep working on our games and prepare for next week."

The Tigers will be in Irvine next weekend for the SoCal Tournament, which will feature most of the top teams in the country.

Pacific will enter as the third seed, behind No. 1 UCLA or No. 2 USC, which both won easily on Saturday.

The Tigers will face No. 15 Santa Clara at 10:50 a.m. next Saturday at Corona del Mar High School and either No. 6 UC Santa Barbara or No. 11 Concordia later in the day.